dovetails on the top of a table etc

[engineerone]

checking out various books and magazines i notice that there seem to be different ideas about the depth of the dovetail on the top of a table, or for istance a chest of drawers.

i am talking about the stretcher do you make the dovetail the vertical depth of the wood, or is there a reason to make it shorter like you would with a tenon???

how does making it shorter improve its anti twist capability???

paul

[engineerone]

so lots of looks, but no comments

paul

[mrgrimsdale]

Do you mean the dovetails at the ends of top rails such as you'd see above a drawer in a table or chest, e.g. aunty joyce page 329 no 1 or 8?
In which case: full depth, but a shoulder on the lower side gives a neater joint (out of sight though) and a bit of resistance to racking i.e. the dovetail would be pulled and the shoulder would push.

cheers
Jacob

cheers
Jacob